Diary of a Lost Girl (1929)

Diary of a Lost Girl (Tagebuch einer Verlornen)
Directed by G.W. Pabst
Written by Rudolph Leonhardt from a novel by Margarete Böehme
1929/Germany
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/YouTube

Elder Count Osdorff: With a little more love, no one on this earth would ever be lost!

The combination of Louise Brooks and G.W. Pabst in 1929 was just magic.

As the story begins, the lovely teenager Thymian (Brooks) witnesses her wealthy pharmacist father fire the housekeeper he has impregnated.  It puts kind of a damper on the festivities for her confirmation.  She receives a diary as a gift.  The father’s lecherous assistant, writes in the diary asking Thymian to meet him in the pharmacy later that night.  Now Thymian has an unfortunate habit of fainting dead away anytime a potential rapist approaches and remains unconscious until the deed is done.

Her father brings in another, smarter, housekeeper who can’t wait to get Thymian out of the house so she can get all the attention.  The birth of Thymian’s daughter provides the perfect excuse.  Thymian refuses to marry her rapist so the baby is taken from her and she is sent to the reformatory from hell.  This is run by a sadistic matron and her pervert husband.  Thymian escapes with another girl.  She hopes to recover her baby but cannot. So she takes up the girl’s suggestion to join her at a certain address.

This turns out to be an establishment run by a grandmotherly madam.  Thymian thinks her job is to dance with the men but at a fateful moment she faints again and becomes truly “lost”.  Will Thymian escape her sad existence and her shame?

I watched this on YouTube in a restored version that added about an hour to the 70-minute version I have previously seen.  Truth be told, that hour didn’t add a lot though we do get to see Brooks cavort on the beach with some young friends 1929 style.  On the other hand, Brooks is so captivating that I didn’t mind watching her for another hour.  All the accolades I gave to Pandora’s Box (1929) apply here.  It’s an interesting look at the double standard and decadent Weimar Berlin.  Recommended.

Clips from film set to Pink’s “Dear Diary” – the PERFECT mashup – I love this!